The support team that runs itself on Mondays
Tom Weiss · Head of Support · a 30-person support team · 6 months, with a workshop in month 3
0
Mondays Tom has to plan the week
2 weeks
off in August with a flat queue
1
lead promoted to support operations
Client
Tom Weiss, Head of Support
Company
Software company, support team of 30
Length
6 months, workshop in month 3
Workshop
In their office
The situation
Tom’s three team leads waited for him every Monday to plan the week. When he went on holiday, the queue doubled and nobody felt allowed to change the rota.
What we worked on
Delegating
Handing over the Monday planning, one decision at a time, with Tom in the room but quiet.
Meetings
One 30-minute planning meeting with a clear owner, instead of three loose ones.
Growing managers
Two of the leads had never managed before. We worked on their first hard conversations.
How it went
Months one and two
Tom sat in on Monday planning but stayed quiet, and handed over one decision a week: the rota first, then escalations, then hiring requests. When a call went wrong, we talked about it in our session, not in front of the team.
The workshop
In month three the leads spent a day in their own office deciding how they would run the week without him. They wrote down who owns the queue, who owns the rota and how they disagree.
By month six
Tom joins Monday planning for ten minutes if the leads ask. Two of them had never managed before; both now run their own one-to-ones, and one was promoted.
What changed
The leads run Monday planning without Tom.
Tom took two weeks off in August and the queue stayed flat.
One lead was promoted to support operations manager.
In Tom’s words
What they said on our first call, and what they said when we finished.
On our first call
“Every Monday my leads wait for me to decide the week.”
Six months later
“My leads plan Monday without me now. I join for ten minutes, if they ask.”
Tom Weiss
Head of Support · 30-person support team
